


Another Try

by niawen



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Mild Alcohol Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 13:26:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1689950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niawen/pseuds/niawen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connor goes to Edward's apartment to see why the hell he's been left in the snow when they were supposed to meet over an hour ago.  Request from DJKaeru because she is super cool like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Try

Connor pulled the hoodie he was wearing closer around his broad shoulders, trying not to shudder in the cold air biting at his exposed hands and cheeks. He liked the cold, he really did, but he had anticipated staying indoors this particular, snowy evening instead of the two mile walk he was striding along now. He had been looking forward to a hot drink and a slice of cake or some other sweet, bad-for-you dessert that he was so fond of but his plans for the evening had unfortunately not lived up to his expectations. He cursed again under his breath, visible in the cold night, and sped up, his long legs making his stride look especially impatient.

Edward had been due to meet him at the coffee shop two blocks away nearly an hour ago so they could make some effort at not being ridiculously awkward around each other. But Edward had not shown up and Connor had waited long enough in the coffee shop’s explosion of Christmas decor and sugary holiday radio. Besides, he strongly suspected Edward had found distraction in the form of hot toddies or irish coffee, or (if it had been a really rough week) just straight whiskey. In all of Connor's nineteen years he had never met anyone quite as frustrating as Edward- though his father, Haytham, was a close contender. 

Edward was very caring, Connor knew, and he treated Connor like a small child, pestering him with gifts and unexpected visits and just by generally hovering too closely. Despite Edward being clingy and loud and coddling, Connor did appreciate the sentiment. Edward was his only remaining family that was fully invested in his health and happiness. His relationship with his father was, of course, strained at best. Haytham and Connor seemed as though they wanted to care about each other and perhaps actually learn to be family, but Templar rigidity and Assassin ideals never really mixed well and Connor had been forced to abandon the small hope that he might truly get to know the man. 

This, however, only made him appreciate Edward a little more. Yeah, he could be loud and obnoxious and he drank too much and made passes at everything with legs (and once, without, when he had been drunk and started complimenting a trash bin just before vomiting on it- Connor cringed and shuddered at the mortifying recollection) but his heart was really in the right place. He was undeniably disappointed in Haytham, Connor knew, despite his efforts to hide it and the blame he internalized, but this only seemed to make him doubly determined to remain close to Connor. Edward really did care and wanted the best for Connor.

Still, Connor’s gratitude was not quite enough to keep him from getting irritated with having to babysit him constantly and, tonight, walking two miles in the snow to see if he could peel his drunken grandad off the floor. He growled under his breath and made his way to the apartment where Edward lived, climbing the stairwell quickly and sighing in relief as he got out of the wind. The door (complete with crooked number four hanging by a bent nail over the peephole) to the apartment was dented and battered after years of previous tenants and Connor knocked irritably, the loud sound echoing down the hallway. Thankfully, it wasn't late enough to rouse the ire of the haggard old crone of landlady. Connor hated her. Almost as much as she hated Edward.

Connor stood for several ponderously long moments, irritably brushing the snow off his shoulders before he knocked again, louder and more annoyed than the last. When the door finally swung open, however, it was not Edward standing in the dingy frame, but Adewale. Connor took a moment to subdue his look of surprise. Adewale was Edward's best friend- and much saner counterpart and Connor knew he should not be quite so surprised to see him as he was Edward’s other babysitter, as Connor liked to think of it..

Adewale was taller than Connor (something he did not see often) and almost as thickly built. He was dark and could look downright menacing when he chose but Connor was more used to him smiling broadly and making cracks at Edward's expense. Tonight, however, he was looking irritable and uncomfortable in a huge green sweatshirt and ballcap. "Connor," he said slowly, his deep voice reverberating down the hallway. "Now's not such a great time."

Connor guessed as much. "Is he drunk? He was supposed to meet me for coffee."

Adewale turned around and Connor craned past his huge frame at a sound emanating from deeper in the apartment. "Yeah, he's drunk," Adewale deadpanned. "He called me a few hours ago, bawlin' about 'Aytham. I came over cause I knew he would drink himself stupid but I was too late to prevent the worst of it. Now I’m just watchin’ ‘im to make sure he don’t choke on his own vomit."

Connor just sighed irritably and invited himself in, moving into the living room and sighing loudly again as he found Edward. He was sprawled on the couch, legs splayed clumsily and his torn jeans and t shirt were wrinkled and pulled at odd angles across his body. He was moaning something under his breath, his hand groping limply for the bottles Adewale had been smart enough to move out of reach.  
"Edward," Adewale snapped, businesslike. "Connor is here you useless lump. Get up."

Edward just groaned again. “Too b-bloody noisy-!” he slurred weakly, turning and burying his face into the couch cushions and looking quite ridiculous while he was at it.

“You might as well head back,” Adewale told him, sitting in the old armchair across the way and making himself comfortable. “This idiot’s going to be trashed a while still.”

Connor didn't reply immediately but the thought of going back out into the cold made him shiver. “I suppose,” he managed after a long moment. “You’re going to make sure he’s okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about ‘im, I’ll make myself at home-”

“Ade… Ade, is that Connor!?” Edward suddenly crowed, drunk as you please and hardly able to lift his bleary eyes to where Connor was standing awkwardly. “Come and ‘ave a drink with me, boy,” he said loudly, slurring and speaking slowly. “There’s… there’s some round here somewhere.”

“I took it from you, ya moron. You’re shitfaced for no good reason. He says you were supposed to meet him and you stood him up.” Adewale barked, his patience apparently thinning for Edward, who was looking downright petulant at this.

“Give… Give the boy a drink,” Edward pleaded, putting on a theatrical pout and attempting to sit up (and failing twice). He struggled to keep his spine straight and sort of melted back down against the couch. “C’mon Ade, he’s a good boy.”

“If we were going by behavior you’d be as dry as a desert wash. Instead you drank like a fish and blew the poor boy off. It’s snowin’ outside, you inconsiderate bastard,” Adewale barked back, toeing one of the liquor bottles even further away, as though paranoid he’d suddenly work up the coordination to make a lunge for it.

“Ade, yer a stiff, s’what you are,” Edward slurred back.

“I’m fine,” Connor cut in and Edward turned his dilated, gassy eyes on him instead. “I’m in no hurry to wind up… like that.”

Connor and Adewale were both surprised, however, when Edward suddenly lunged from the couch and nearly fell across Connor’s tense lap. “Don’t let Ade fool you,” he said conspiratorially, hissing loudly enough for Adewale to quirk one thick, dark eyebrow at him in annoyance. “Last time he came here to babysit, he drank the rest of it to keep me from it. Was hungover longer ‘n I was.”

Adewale actually jumped to his feet and cuffed Edward upside the skull, cursing irritably. “You cheeky…! You smarmy little shit, you played dumb after that for weeks and you actually remembered!? I had to drag you to the toilet because you were gonna heave all over the kitchen floor. It ain't my fault that the amount of hooch it takes to find your pathetic episodes tolerable is enough to put me out cold. Ya obnoxious pain in the ass!”

Edward gave an undignified squawk and clumsily tried to bat Adewale’s huge hands away from his tender skull but to no avail. He was about two seconds from a retaliation when an unfamiliar noise made him pause. His bleary eyes traveled upwards, to Adewale’s face, who was looking at Connor in confusion before Edward actually looked to his grandson…

The noise, he realized after another slow second, was Connor. Laughing. And not his usual, sardonic chuckle. The boy was laughing hysterically, his whole body shaking with it, bouncing Edward as he lay draped over his legs like a boneless sack of liquid.  
“Christ, and now your boy’s lost ‘is damn mind,” Adewale grunted, straightening back up and trying to look as dignified as possible in the ratty old armchair he was sitting in. 

“S-sorry,” Connor choked, trying to regain his composure. “Sorry. He’s just… it’s ridiculous. And the mental image…” Connor snorted and was laughing so hard he covered his mouth with one of his hands, trying to calm himself and rid himself of the image of them both stone drunk and bickering ineffectually. “You poor man,” he said at length to Adewale, wiping tears from the corner of his eyes.

Edward sniffed haughtily. “He comes of ‘is own will and stays of it too. He just wants an excuse to get into my booze.”

“Your booze ain’t even all that good!” Ade barked back, frowning but Connor was still laughing at them and he was getting slightly annoyed- though to his immense disapproval he was trying not to join in, having rarely seen the boy look so genuinely entertained.

“You’ll stay for a while,” Edward pressed after a moment, still slurring and starting to slide back down onto the thinly carpeted floor. “Won’t you boy?”

“I should really…” Connor started, his face aching from laughing. “No… I’ll… I’ll stay. For a while. But I’m not drinking.”

“I’ll make some coffee,” Adewale said with a rare smile, still trying not to give himself away entirely at Connor’s sudden humor. “We can at least wait in comfort for this rat bastard to get ‘is head on straight.”

Connor nodded at that, suddenly feeling as though tonight might not be a total waste, even as more snow gathered on the outside of the sill.


End file.
